Archives for April 2008

‘Brian Campbell of the San Jose Sharks, Jeff Halpern of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres, Mathieu Schneider of the Anaheim Ducks and Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators have been selected by the executive board of the NHL Players’ Association as the new player representatives on the committee.’

‘Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said last week during the Sabres’ season-ending press conference that the workload, which included 34 straight starts from the end of January until April, deprived Miller, a practice junkie, of quality time to hone his skills. "For him it was try to get him some rest," he said. "… I actually encouraged him at times not to go on, where he liked to take shots."’

‘In general terms, the Sabres need more toughness both up front and on the blue line, if they want to get where they want to go. They have a terrific head coach in Lindy Ruff and an astute gm, despite his many critics, in Darcy Regier. While this season has been a huge disappointment, even though expectations were down after the key losses, it isn’t the time for wholesale changes, and many impatient fans and media will be saying and writing exactly that in the coming months.’

‘We have a number of players, college players, to sign; we’ve got Gerbe who is up for the Hobey Baker, we’ve got [Tim] Kennedy and [Chris] Butler as well. Kennedy at Michigan State and Butler at Denver. And then we have European players, [Dennis] Persson and [Jhonas] Enroth, players like that and we’ll fill with either quality leadership players at the American [Hockey] League level or more free agent players.’

‘In Ales’ case, I think Al did what we thought he could do, what we expected him to do. He was a good player for us and one of five guys that scored more than 20 goals for us. But again at the end of the day it will be an assessment that this is what we have available, this is the direction we want to go with the team, this is what we think will be the best for the hockey club and not just for the short-term, but for the long-term.’

‘I think our goal, Darcy asked me this last week, and I said our goal is to win a Stanley Cup. We can’t suggest that we even do it that way, but we are probably not going to be able to do it by going out and buying the most expensive free agents and we’re probably not going to be able to do it by going all the way to the cap.’

‘The conquering hero of the Frozen Four either can return to Boston College for his senior season or can turn pro and join the Buffalo Sabres, who made the 5-5 dynamo a fifth-round pick in the 2005 draft. “He’ll have to look at all the pluses both ways,” coach Jerry York said. “There are no minuses.”’

‘National Hockey League star Thomas Vanek scored a hat-trick to help host nation Austria romp to a 10-5 victory over Great Britain in the World Championships. Vanek, who plays for Buffalo Sabres, condemned Britain to a second successive defeat in Division One as Austria continued their bid for an immediate return to the top flight.’

‘Ruff just wants Bernier’s focus to be speed, with and without the puck. Skating lessons and off-ice cross-training will be the "Bear’s" meat and potatoes for the next six months. “I’m going to take a little bit of a break, I’m going to start training maybe in May,” Bernier said. “Hopefully everything will go well for me and I can improve to be better for the Buffalo Sabres next year. I was here for 16 games and for those games I played hard, I did the best I could and hopefully that was enough,” he continued. “I’m sad to leave Buffalo for the offseason but I will try to get ready for next year with the Sabres.”’

‘“(Tallinder’s) had some very serious injuries that maybe didn’t allow him to train as hard in the offseason and get physically strong enough in the offseason,” Ruff said. “I think his game wasn’t anywhere near where I had him at as a defenseman.”’